6 Nov 2015

It
is both comical and ironical that the Ashram Trustees first took the BJP President,
Sri Amit Shah, to the Samadhi of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and then to the
Archives Cold Storage, where their manuscripts arepreserved. It is ironical because the very
supporters of the denigration of Sri Aurobindo posed as earnest
followers of the Master in front of powerful politicians. At the same time, it
is comical that those who insolently tamper with the writings of Sri Aurobindo
are introduced as the ones who reverentially preserve his writings. [read full article below]

On the Visit of BJP President Amit Shah to Sri Aurobindo
Ashram – by Sampdas

It
was in the news in the not too distant past that the President of the Bharatiya
Janata Party, Shri Amit Shah, visited the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry while
he was on a tour of south India. He came to Pondicherry en route, after
visiting the famous Nataraja temple at Chidambaram. The Bharatiya Janata Party,
as we all know, is currently the ruling party of the Union Govt. of India.

As
a devotee and disciple of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, it is a matter of pride
for many like me that the head of the political party, which recognises the
spiritual traditions of India, came to the Ashram, visited Sri Aurobindo’s and
the Mother’s rooms, bowed down at their Samadhi, and had a look at the Cold
Storage of the Archives Dept. which preserves the writings and manuscripts of
the Gurus.

It
is however a matter of comic contrast as to how his visit was interpreted.
First, in the reporting of the Press, it was a brief news item in The Hindu
; and then with a little more detail in The Times of India by Bosco
Dominique, thereporter, who generally
travels an extramile with the Ashram
Trust in reporting matters connected to it.

This
was duly followed by a write-up in the wellwishersofsaa site. As is the
usual custom in India to mention Sri Ganeshaya Namaha to start any activity,
the Well-wishers site first invoked the presiding deities of their target – the
triad of Raman Reddy, Sraddhalu Ranade and R.Y. Deshpande, mercifully omitting
Alok Pandey this time. They felt that the visit of Shri Amit Shah had to be
viewed in the background of the disinformation campaign carried out by these
worthies. In one of my earlier write-ups, I had mentioned that the wellwishersofsaa
are very generous in crediting the triad, whom they dread, with literally
everything not to their liking. Thank your stars, in this monsoon season, the
triad has not yet been credited for the excess or scanty rainfall at the portal
and precincts of the Ashram.

This
site (thelivesofsriaurobindo.com) too carried the news item on Shri Amit
Shah’s visit, criticising the
Ashram Trustees for bending backwards to a visitingdignitary of the present ruling party, in
much the same manner as they had ingratiated themselves earlier to the
erstwhile ruling party leaders. To an impartial observer, it is all too
apparent that the Ashram Trustees and their secretary ‘Devilprasad
Asatyamoorthy’ want to be on the right side of the rulers because their own
standing is at stake, more so with the Union Govt. filing an affidavit in the
Supreme Court favouring an independent Enquiry into the mismanagement of the
Ashram Trust, as was also done earlier by the local Govt. of Pondicherry in
September 2012. Notwithstanding the bravado of the top notch lawyer of the
Ashram Trust declaring in the Supreme Court that they would welcome any
enquiry, there seems to be an underlying fear in the minds of the wrongdoers in
as much as the earlier enquiry ordered by the local Govt. was sought to be
torpedoed by the Ashram Trust by rushing to the Madras High Court and getting a
stay order on the proposed enquiry. The proceedings in the Madras High Court
however led to the appointment of a retired judge of the Kerala High Court as the
Enquiry Officer in September 2013. The retired judge after preliminary work
recused himself, as he wanted to practise in the Supreme Court. The second
retired judge from the Kerala High Court, who was named by the Madras High
Court as the Enquiry Officer in October 2013, had one meeting with an extremely
limited circle of persons (as per the order of the High Court which appeared to
be restrictive in scope and coverage). Before the Enquiry with such truncated
terms of reference could proceed further, the second Enquiry Judge breathed his
last in January 2014. As of now the Enquiry is a non starter. It is hoped that
the proposed Enquiry contemplated by the Supreme Court would not be as
restrictive as the one ordered by the Madras High Court, that it will be much more
comprehensive and provide the opportunity to all the devotees and disciples to
flag the perceived misdeeds of the Trustees and their henchmen before the
Enquiry Officer. Only an impartial and time bound enquiry into the gravamen of
the charges, without any interference from the Trustees, can set things right
in the Ashram.

It
is not out of love for Raman Reddy or Sradhhalu Ranade or R. Y. Deshpande – the
dreaded trio – that I am writing this, but out of love for the Mother and Sri
Aurobindo. It is also a matter of great concern to a large number of devotees
at Pondicherry and elsewhere, as well as the hapless inmates of the Ashram who
dare not speak in public about the wrongdoings of the Ashram Trust due to the
threat of withdrawal of their basic amenities such as food, shelter and medical
treatment by the ruling junta.

A
question arises again and again as to the genesis of the crisis at the Ashram.
While harassment of inmates and financial irregularities have been going on for some time past, they were kept under tabs since Ashramites are enjoined not to resort to the police or outside authorities for
redressal of grievances, or allowed to complain against the misdeeds of the
high and mighty in the Ashram. These are sins which the majority of the inmates
have been stoically putting up with for many years and pretending to be
ignorant about. In some cases, a few had to approach the local magisterial
courts for getting back their basic amenities which were withdrawn by the
Ashram Trust in retaliation to raising these issues in the public domain. But
these events never drew much the attention of all the inmates and disciples nor
the general public at large.

However, the proverbial “last straw
on the camel’s back” came when Peter Heehs and his cohorts systematically
started tampering with the writings of Sri Aurobindo in the name of editing them
at the Ashram Archives, and attempted to sully his image by portraying an
extremely negative picture of his life. While those who were fortunate to have
had personal association with the Master, had already written a number of inspirational
biographies on him, Peter Heehs the nomadic sojourner from overseas, who
neither had any personal interface with the Master, nor an objective mind, nor
any spiritual bent, crowned himself as an objective historian and published a highly
prejudiced biography of the Master in the U.S.A. This was apparently with the consent
of the Trustees for reasons best known to them. Claiming to be an authority on
Sri Aurobindo by working at the Ashram Archives, PH went by bits of highly opinionated
versions of westernised scholars and fished out stray references for salacious
and negative interpretations of the Master and his spiritual work. What is most
appalling is that the Ashram Trustees, who ought to be faithful to the Master (in
whose name the Ashram stands and to whom they owe everything), have been
supportive of Peter Heehs in his effort to wreck the Ashram from within.

As an interesting aside, it is worth
noting that Sri M.P. Pandit, one of the senior disciples, who had written more
than a hundred and fifty books on the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother,
does not even find mention as a disciple on any of the Ashram’s websites. For
many of us Indians as well as seekers in the West, his writings brought the
message of positive and affirmative spirituality of the Mother and the Master.
While he has been blacked out by the Ashram Trust, the well orchestrated
campaign in support of Peter Heehs’s negative and sub-standard biography of the
Master at the instance of those who are currently in power in the Ashram, shows
not only a mindset of utter insincerity, but also an attitude of putting one’s personal
interest above the Ideal for which the Ashram was originally founded. Is it
only monetary interest that has come in the way or are the Trustees hostage to
some ulterior interest, one does not know yet. But surely, those who stand by the
denigration
of Sri Aurobindo seem to be the ones who have sold their soul for a mess of
pottage. For them the soulis not of primacy but personal
interests are the sole concern!

It
is both comical and ironical that the Ashram Trustees first took the BJP President,
Sri Amit Shah, to the Samadhi of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and then to the
Archives Cold Storage, where their manuscripts arepreserved. It is ironical because the very
supporters of the denigration of Sri Aurobindo posed as earnest
followers of the Master in front of powerful politicians. At the same time, it
is comical that those who insolently tamper with the writings of Sri Aurobindo
are introduced as the ones who reverentially preserve his writings. In a sense,
the way the Ashram Trustees have managed the visit of the political dignitary
only reflects the underlying truth of the matter. MDG, Asatyamurthy & Co.
first showed Sri Amit Shah the Samadhi of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, the
sanctified place where the mortal remains of the great spiritual Gurus are kept.
And then, as a contrast to it, they showed him how the current crop of time-servers
has managed to build another samadhi for the writings of the Master in the form
of the Ashram Cold Storage. The latter is not only actual but also symbolic.
For by consigning the writings of the Master for preservation under controlled
conditions (the actual), and by denying access to those who find fault with the
likes of Peter Heehs, thereby aiding the disinformation about the life and
works of the Master (the intellectual and symbolic side), they have buried the
works of the Master five fathoms deep into an irretrievable cave of the Panis!

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